Saturday, March 26, 2016

Writing Habits and WIPs!!!

I took a twitter poll and it seems that you all are most interested to hear about my WIPs and writing, but you guys also want me to do all of the other stuff too! So I am going to start out by letting you all know a little bit about my two WIPs as well as different things that I do while writing, to keep me motivated and stuff of the sort. So let's begin....

WIP #1: My first Work In Progress has two titles as of now, I haven't decided which I like better or that fits everything better. Shattered & The Legacy of Spencer Heath. The titles are in no way final... just a few things that definitely encompass the story. This is a YA (maybe NA?) Contemporary Novel that follows three central characters. Damien Scott, Bianca Dupre, and Spencer Heath

This novel, as of now, is told in first person POV from Damien's point of view. The story is going to be about Spencer Heath and his impact on Damien's and Bianca's lives.

The story starts off at the end. Spencer is in the hospital (And I'm not going to tell you why this is so.) and in the most basic terms asks Damien to do him a few favors. This involves him telling Spencer's mother, Lucille the truth, Delivering a letter to Miss Bianca Dupre, and going on a grand adventure that Spencer has laid out for him, as a final wish you could say.

I have some of the story outlined and about 10k words written as of now, but so many ideas for how it is going to go. When I originally wrote the beginning of the story, it was going to be from Spencer's point of view, but that has since shifted. The story will include stories from when Damien and Spencer first met, but will primarily be when they are both about 19/20 years old.

I shared my favorite quote from it on Twitter earlier this year, but I will share it here now.

“You should try to encourage yourself,” I tell him. “I won’t always be here, you know. I travel often Spencer, and I don’t want to see you get hurt especially by your own self. It kills me inside watching someone with such a beautiful soul and a big heart destroy himself from the inside out. You are a poison to yourself, Spencer, you administer a little to your mind each day, you let it kill you bit by bit. To save yourself, you depend on other people, you let them be your antivenom. And that will work, for now. But eventually- eventually you won’t have someone to lean on, to save you. What are you going to do then? If you aren’t careful your poison is going to kill you.”

I'm intentionally being vague about details, because I am not entirely sure how everything will play out, and I hope to sell this novel someday. I hope that my agent is Brooks Sherman, because I would love to be rep'd by him.

Second WIP: This one is a YA Fantasy Novel that goes back and forth between Los Angeles, California and Aulan, an alternate dimension.

My god, do I love this story. This is the first story that I ever seriously dedicated myself to handwritten wise, and a lot of it has yet to be typed. I have 11k of the novel typed, and have about 33 more pages of handwritten notes to type (granted this is a small journal, but I add a lot of details as I type.)

I am most proud of my prologues (Yes, there are two of them, is that unconventional? Oops.) And I will share the first one with you guys here and now:

Pain echoed in the small hut, made of clay, just large enough to live in without the feeling of claustrophobia. Her stomach convulsed at the thought of giving birth to these babies, the danger of what they represent, the agony that she must endure to give them a life, a hope. Twins, the first twins of her kind, the first to survive the prolonged pregnancy. She should be thankful that she has them, but instead all she feels is fear. Fear because she has to protect them from her. Fear that one will perish after offering her a new hope for her world.

Tears streamed down the woman's face as she bellowed in suffering. Her husband's hand nearly gnawed off as she bit down, easing the pain by transferring some to him. High witches are known to withstand immense amounts of pain, but nobody is equipped with an arsenal to survive giving birth without at least a little bit of aching.. The only thing getting her through this besides the knowledge of what the twins represent, of course, was her husband, the only person that had always been there for her, through every insanity that came through this world. His pain was starting to surpass hers, and she was too focused on the birth to care, ready to bring her little witchlings into this world, the beauty that it was. It was heartbreaking that the only way to ensure they both lived is to send one of them to another world, a world without magic.

She told everyone she was having a little girl, months before she knew, because her motherly instincts told her she was stronger. She knew that meant the little boy still inside her would have to go, as difficult as it was to choose.

Another contraction allowed her to push, and she heard the little boys cry, the healer they entrusted to be here for the birth bringing the baby out, and cleaning him off and marking him with his witchling mark, so one day he could be found again.

The mother wept, as she heard the guards of the town marching up and down the city line. Fear struck her core, she was hoping, praying that the bitch did not know of her pregnancy. She must of sensed my distance from her, and the growing power inside of me. the mother thought solemnly. Luckily, they planned for this, it was more difficult than the original plan. She was going to send the healer away, to the west, by boat to the land of the forgotten, a land where magic was weak, and although the exiled live there, it would be safer than what Aulan was about to become, under the tyranny of the Spider Queen.

The boys twin was not far behind, and the healer gave the boy to the father to hold, as another push produced a second witchling, a little girl, larger than the boy, strength evident in her face due to her silence, a good quality in a witchling. The healer took a blanket off the shelf and wrapped her like a burrito, and placed her in her mother's arms, as she took the baby boy back from the father.

The healer was very motherly, and glad to help as she was infertile. “Am I still taking him to the Land of the Forgotten?” She knew very well of the dangers this could lead to, but knowing the couple for twenty years gave them a strong bond, they grew up near each other.

The mother and father exchanged glances, and she shook her head to the healer. “I want you to listen very carefully. You cannot take him there, for the dangers that lurk are too great, you must take him far away from here, to a land without magic, take him to a place called Earth. To get there you must go to the seer, Ezrael, and ask him to transport you there. All other instructions remain the same.”

The healer quickly ran through the busy streets, and down the cobblestone path toward the big tree where the seer lived. She held the baby close to her heart, praying that nobody could sense the life hidden beneath her cloak. When she arrived the seer was waiting, with a portal and everything else she needed, as if the Tanera family knew this was going to happen and had planned it this way all along. She stepped through the portal, ready to begin a new life, forced to hide her magic, to save the boy who would save them all.

Now, I love to write, but oftentimes I don't have the energy to do so, or I'll feel like it but then the words won't flow. Do you write? Do you have that problem? Here's some of my quick fixes

2. Have little snacks on hand! I personally prefer to have a little bit of chocolate or some chips (but I can get carried away on that one, so...)

3. Take a break when your brain starts to hurt. Get up, walk around, do something besides staring at a screen/journal for a little while.

4. Write for YOU first, and everyone else later. If you are enjoying your story, than chances are others will too.

I'd love to hear what you guys think! Did you like either of my WIPs? Have any of your own writing advice/ little things you do? I love interacting with you guys! Leave me a comment and I'll make sure to visit your blog as well! :) :)